2012-1Q: SIMPLer: Archive IP Usage Data

In the past when a customer went to "post", it was necessary to keep the customers IPs in the IP table in order to retain the customer usage graphs. The downside to this is that the IP was not then available for use for other customers. For private IPs this is generally not a problem, but for scarce public IPs it can be.

SIMPLer has now been updated to add an audit which will periodically delete IP details from "post" customers, and move the details to a new "Archived IP Table", freeing up the IP to be re-used for another customer. The Archived IP Table will appear in a customers details whenever the customer account has archived IPs, and contains all the relevant details from the IP table - the IP address, the MAC address, hostname/label field, RADIUS username and a link to the data usage graph. A sample of the new display is given below:

The audit can also periodically remove information from the Archived IP Table - this is to coply with data retention regulations in some countries where usage data for post customers should not be retained for longer than a certain period.

When searching for customers "by IP", the IP Archive Table will also be searched - allowing operators to locate customer who currently use a give IP and have also used it at some time in the past.

The audit can be run daily, weekly or monthly as required. At present this audit must be enabled manually by Azotel. If you would like to use this feature, please email support@azotel.com giving the following details:

• 1. How often you would like the audit run (daily, weekly, monthly). If weekly/monthly please indicate which day of the week/month you would like the audit to run.

  2. How many days should a customer be "post" before their IP details will be archived? Note this should not be set too low, in case a customer goes to post and then back to current again after a few weeks - in this case it would be best to retain the IP in the customer account. A value of 60-90 days is probably reasonable, or longer if the billing cycle dictates that customers may be "post" for long periods.

  3. Indicate how long (how many days) the data should be retained in the Archived IP Table. If data retention regulations do not require the data to be deleted, then it may be retained indefinitely.